Last month a significant update to the road map data in Australia was deployed on Virtual Earth. You can see the new road map data on http://maps.live.com.au/.

This example shows a before and after of the recently completed M3 EastLink in Melbourne.

Before

After

Visit Live Search Maps now for up to date Australian road maps.

The new ninemsn toolbar was released last month at http://ninemsntoolbar.com.au/. This is the satisfying shortcut to all your ninemsn essentials. The toolbar is easy to use, and is installed straight into your internet browser for easy access at all times.

There are two sides to the toolbar…

ninemsn content and Hotmail/Messenger

This side of the toolbar will keep you up to date with all the latest videos, breaking news, sport, celebrity, competitions, shopping and travel deals.

Search

The search side gives you access to search the web, images, video, ninemsn, Maps and businesses. For Maps, just press the Maps button, type in a location and hit search. For business searches, type in a what/where query (e.g. Dentist in Sydney) to find local businesses. Both will take you to results on Live Search Maps.

You can switch between the two sides by clicking the flip button. It is right next to the weather display.

Head to http://ninemsntoolbar.com.au/ and download now!

Yesterday our development team deployed a major release of content to the live http://maps.live.com.au/ site. Lot’s of things went on behind the scenes, which is unimportant to you as a user…

What I really want to tell you about is the new content and new multi-stop driving directions which were added to the site.

Content

The homepage now calls out examples of content you can explore on Live Search Maps.

This section will be kept up to date with relative content so you can find what you need.

Multi-stop driving directions

This is where the real effort lies. With an objective to catch-up on the core US site functionality, multi-stop driving directions has been added. Previously you could define a start and end point and find directions from A to B.

You can now define up to 15 stops along a route, from A to O.

Selecting round-trip will copy your start point to be the end point, so you can find your way back. Reverse simply reverses the order of stops.

And to top it all off, you can still use the Share button in the top right to send the route to a friend.

Shhh... not many people know about this one yet!

Great coverage of Bird's Eye imagery now in Melbourne. Check out Melbourne on Live Search Maps (just click Bird's Eye to view once you are on the site).

You can share any map and directions search with the world. Here is how it's done...

Location searches

From Live Search Maps, click on 'Locations' and search for any town. I am thinking of heading to Palm Beach this weekend (if the rain stays away!). OK I found it on the map, and I want to show a friend on Messenger where it is. Simple...

Click 'Share' in the top right corner:

You will see the query string has parameters calling out Palm Beach. I just press 'Copy to clipboard':

And I can paste it into Messenger, or anywhere else! It is copied to your system's clipboard:

You can also go to 'Share' and press 'Send in e-mail', this will launch your email client with an email messaging containing a link to the map.

Driving Directions searches

Perform a Driving Directions search and perform the same process above to share a directions route.

So now you can share!

Totally off the topic of local search, this post is in participation of the Learn About Poverty Blog Action Day from World Vision Australia. In doing so I will preach to you what actions Microsoft take to fight poverty. First, some online campaigns which donate to charity just by using Live products.

i'm Initiative

http://im.live.com/

Over US$1.8million has been raised since March 2007. If you are a participant, every time you use Messenger or Hotmail, Microsoft will share a portion of the advertising revenue with the chosen charity.

Search and Give

http://www.searchandgive.com/

Every time you use Live Search to search the web, a 'penny' will be earned for your cause. Microsoft makes annual donations to your selected organisation. This one is USA residents only and has raised US$399,000 since September 2007.

Donations

In 2006 an annual company meeting was held, at which the announcement was made that since 1983 Microsoft has donated over US$2.5 billion to charity.

With my Microsoft alias I see weekly, the great work which Microsoft employees do for charity. Recent trips to Africa to lend a hand in aid of poverty, participation in charity runs and many more...

Microsoft Open License for Charities

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/programs/open/opencharity.mspx

Non-profit organisations can obtain multiple software licenses at reduced prices.

Xbox Red v Blue campaign

Sadly the great HaloFore viral game and Red v Blue campaign site are no longer alive. In September 2007, Xbox Australia ran a promotion to coincide with the release of Halo 3 on Xbox 360. I do not recall the final result, something along the lines of AU$50,000 were donated to Australia charities. Mission Australia in particular helps homeless people and in a sense fights local poverty.

Following on from the success of the campaign, Xbox Australia donated a further AU$2,000 to charity for amnesia to hold an internal fundraising game - Red v Blue Designer Tennis.

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/

In a way connected with Microsoft, works hard on Poverty and Development in the areas of Agricultural Development, Financial Services for the Poor, Housing and Homelessness and Water, Sanitation & Hygiene.

And there must be many more examples of what Microsoft does for poverty. Makes me feel good being an employee!

So if you want to take action, go to join the i'm Initiative. If you are in Australia, submit your email and this will make the justification to release the campaign in Australia all that more important.

With the release of the Virtual Earth Web Service and Map Control 6.2, is the arrival of weather integration in 3D. The weather data is near-real time. A tad cool in New York at the moment, with random clouds about...

Looking outside of the ninemsn office, I'm thinking those clouds are playing a big role in keeping the heat around!

Note - there are more than 3 buildings in Sydney central business district. Bring on more 3D imagery!

Try it out for yourself, just head to Live Search Maps, find a location and toggle 3D on.

Research tells us that visual information is generally remembered better than verbal information (InfoVis). That is why our News team here at ninemsn does a great job of differentiating us from our competitors - offering more visual information to a story that may be lacking in depth.

View the article: One dead in Sydney air crash

A great article by Search Engine Guide's Jackie Barker on the Local search industry (US specific) as well as marketing tactics.

http://www.searchengineguide.com/jackie-baker/local-search-with-matt-mcgee-sbm-unleash.php

To make this more relevant to the Australian market, the Local Search: SEO and PPC Tactics can be expanded. You can add your business to Local sites, such as http://mylocal.ninemsn.com.au/ by submitting a listing with Yellow Pages. This will get you coverage not only wherever the listing is distributed online, but also in the paper Yellow Pages book. You can also target display advertising to appear on Local sites only. This enables a very broad reach, you can't target as effectively as PPC.

You will notice as you zoom in on certain parts of the world in Live Search Maps, the Bird's eye button will turn from grayed-out into white text.

You can now start exploring and get to know your favourite city, from a different angle and very close up ...

Centerpoint (AMP) Tower

Sydney Opera House 

Sydney Harbour Bridge (close-up)

At the moment, you can use Bird's eye view images of Sydney CBD, Gold Coast, Wollongong and Hobart. More imagery of Australia is on the way.

Here is a hint...

This is the first in a series of feature posts, calling out some of the functions of the ninemsn Local sites, that you just might not know about if you have not visited or explored them.

On both Live Search Maps and mylocal, for any local business listing you find through conducting a business type or business name search, you can send the details to any mobile phone in Australia. It costs the user nothing to send the message from the page, which can be conveniently kept on hand and used for a follow up call to the business.

Find any business listing

Click 'send to mobile' button

So try a business search on maps.live.com.au or mylocal.ninemsn.com.au and see for yourself. Have a play and post your feedback about the experience.

An article in the press today, which mentions maps.live.com.au.

From 'Position' magazine